Project Graduation Celebrations May Be Sign Of Changes To Come

June 1, 1986|By Don Boyett, Seminole County Editor

Mary McKee just could be right.

She thinks the public, at least locally, is fed up with a shift in morality and is fighting back. That is the only reason she can attribute to the ease in getting so many helping hands to help in drug- and alcohol-free graduation parties this year.

McKee has been involved with school activities for years, ''and I have never seen a response like this,'' she said.

She is one of the coordinators for the Lake Mary High School grad party this year and was referring to more than $30,000 in cash and in-kind donations made for that one party alone. Other local schools, she said, are having equal success.

The test, of course, will come party night. How many graduates will confine their partying to such organized efforts, and how many will organize parties of their own that will be quite different? Youth will be youth, and as one office wag observed, ''Kids today don't seem to be much different from those 20 years ago'' when he was a graduating senior and breweries shifted into overtime.

Other skeptics note that Project Graduation, as the parties are labeled, is for only one night: ''What about all the others?'' There also is little to prevent grads from going on to another party after putting in a decent appearance at the official bash.

Parent-controlled grad parties, of course, are nothing new. What seems to be new this year is an almost desperate community effort to shield these youngstes from the temptations that could lead to drugs.

McKee said the people she approached for help almost volunteered before her request was finished. I sensed the same attitude while visiting a Rotary Club where a party donation was being considered: The request whizzed through.

No wonder. Just as it seems a handle has been designed for one drug, or drinking is getting a bad name, a new problem surfaces. This week, we learned that a new and worse form of cocaine -- rock coke -- is sweeping our state like a tidal wave.

Youth have always been subjected to siren calls; and in each generation the consequencies seem to worsen. It is difficult for most of us to fathom why anyone would be tempted to flirt with drug addiction, but it happens.

The wag is right. Kids haven't changed. Not in 20 years, not in 40, not in 60.

The other skeptics, too, are right. Some of those former students won't bother to attend the official parties, some will make dutiful appearances and leave for a flirtation on the wild side.

McKee and her fellow workers realize this. That is why they are going all- out to make the alcohol- and drug-free parties as attractive as possible. It is a matter of selling.

The overwhelming community response indicates this is not a concern limited only to parents. More and more, the public is coming to realize the seriousness of alcohol and drug problems, as it is of crime in general.

For a long time that concern was reflected only in hand wringing. We should hope Mary McKee is right: The public is fed up and fighting back, because that is the only way a change can be made.